Before we begin to discuss the myth that most wars were religious wars, it seems appropriate to discuss the Crusades and Inquisitions because they are so often brought up by secularists, as if this is all Christianity has to account for. The truth is, the reason these two events are so popular is because they are such a black eye on the Church, not because they are unique in any way. While they are indefensible acts, we can put them into historical context. In the case of the Crusades, the Church was trying to take back land that was held by the West for centuries, and subsequently taken by an Arab invasion in 636 A.D. The Crusaders were further trying to liberate the Christians and Jews in Palestine living under Muslim oppression. In October of 1009, Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was believed to be buried, setting off the events that followed. The Crusades seem legitimate given those circumstances. What was terribly unjust was the slaughter that took place at the hands of the Crusaders when they reached Jerusalem, something that can’t be defended, although not unlike what the Muslims did earlier in North Africa, Spain, Portugal and Southern France. The truth is, if not for the Crusades and the battles to push back the Muslims in Europe, especially Poiters and Toulouse in France, it is possible that the Muslims would have made their way into Europe and we would all be living under Sharia Law today, seeing their goal has never been anything short of world domination.

The important point when someone is using the misdeeds of a few believers as a pattern for Christianity is to point out that these are examples of those who departed from the teachings of Christ, rather than those who followed, and therefore cannot be used to represent the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. As an example, suppose someone violates the laws against murder and kills another person. We don’t use this to make a case that the laws against murder are bad, rather we acknowledge that this person departed from the law. In the same way, when a pastor commits adultery we cannot allow others to represent this as the illegitimacy of Christianity.

Another flaw in this argument is that in every case, they are arguing from the exception rather than the rule. The Crusades and the Inquisitions are only two examples within centuries of astonishing contributions by Christians around the world. Where were the atheists when Christians were establishing the hospital system, human rights, the scientific process, and the greatest charities known to mankind? You can't judge 2,000 years of history on two events that, as we mentioned, are contrary to the teachings of Christ.

Religious WarsAccording to Wikipedia (a source the atheists love) during the 3,000 years of recorded history, the number of deaths due to “religious wars” could not possibly exceed 18 million and is probably closer to 6 million. With over 200 million deaths attributed to none religious wars in the last century alone, most at the hands of secular governments and none of them “religious wars,” the number of deaths at the hands of atheists versus all those in history due to religion would put the figure at less than 8 percent.

​But sadly the 200 million deaths attributed to something other than religion in the last century is just the tip of the iceberg. The An Lushan Rebellion was a revolt against the Tang dynasty of China which witnessed the death of 36 million, the fall of the Ming Dynasty saw the death of 25 million, and the Taiping Rebellion in China killed 25 million. The Napoleonic wars alone, which were fought in the name of the secular Enlightenment, killed over 4 million people. The Viking invasion of Europe saw the most inhumane acts of cruelty ever recorded as women, children, and monks where slaughtered without regard, while thousands of villages were burned to the ground. Rome’s expansion and fall, along with civil wars in Russia, China, and America, were bloody beyond belief. World War I took the lives of 15 million, while World War II took the lives of an unimaginable 55 million people, none due to religion, leaving the claim that most wars were religious wars as nothing more than a bad joke.

Atheists the Worst Kind of Mass MurderersWhile it is hard to find many historical societies that were purely Christian, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Geneva are among exceptions. We can look back and find societies that were in fact purely atheistic in nature, primarily the Communist nations of the past century. The founder Karl Marx was an atheist, along with every prominent leader. Communists were hostile towards religion, closing churches, killing clergy, and ever supportive of everything atheistic. They are also responsible for more deaths by starvation and murder than all the wars for several centuries combined. Of course, prominent atheists today are doing everything possible to wiggle their way out of being associated with those atheists, but the facts of history well records the slaughter at the hands of the ideology which claims such a high moral ground today.

Mao Zedong is the Chinese ruler who brought communism to China and ruled for three decades. The total deaths attributed to his rule stands at 40 -70 million. He eliminated Christianity, missionaries, and churches.

Joseph Stalin is the Communist ruler of the Soviet Union, who is attributed with killing over 20 million of his own people. He instigated reign of terror upon the Christian population. Stalin shut down over 54,000 churches, killed believers, and made the population of monks and the clergy vanish. Stalin was a confessed atheist, and his vision for the Soviet Union was secular, with no trace of religion.

Genghis Khan –The Mongol Warlord, who can be categorized as a barbarian for his lack of religion, is the third leading killer in history with an estimated 40 million deaths credited to his reign. Expansion was his primary motive.

Conclusion: There are many reasons that nations go to war: power, land, revenge, politics, resources, etc. Despite the modern argument, religious wars only account for about 3% to 5% of people killed in wars, while atheistic regimes are the most brutal in human history.​